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Introduction
from Issue Brief— Health & Hunger in WV: Building Bridges at the Community Level in Boone, Lincoln, Logan
Janell Ray, CEO
The Pallottine Foundation of Huntington is honored to be a partner in this impactful collaboration of organizations from across the state working to address the challenges of hunger in our communities. This collaboration between key partners – community, city, county, state, and federal – strengthens the capacity of the total health network working to address food insecurity in our state. The Health and Hunger Summit Series is an invaluable tool in fostering continued and critical conversation on this important topic.
This brief intends to capture in words the discussions and highlights from our 2021 Regional Health and Hunger Summit Series, held in April and May, 2021. The panelists provided a wealth of knowledge on the state of food insecurity, connections between the health care system and local resource providers, nutrition education, and health outcomes in their service areas. Specifically, they explored the successes and challenges to bridging systems in three counties in our state- Boone, Lincoln, and Logan Counties.
Intending to expand on these conversations, this report serves as an opportunity to observe, define, articulate, compile, and share prevailing themes and potential policy recommendations to help make the way we collectively work in this intersection between health and hunger, especially on the community level, better. With a collective approach, we can streamline, prioritize, and collaborate to identify gaps and improve systems. While this brief isn’t exhaustive, we hope you will keep it as a reference and join in the continuing conversations.
